2012-13 Rookie Anthology Case Break Loot (With Letang, Lemieux, and Jagr Hits)

After participating in a past case break with HockeyBreaks.com, i decided to try my hand at another. I've well-documented my fixation with 2012-13 Rookie Anthology, picking up four boxes, all of which have had more than the promised four hits, and pulling what currently ranks No. 1 on my Greatest Pulls of 2013. Out of the 25 hits pulled from those four boxes, my only Pittsburgh Penguin hit came in the form of a Titanium jersey card of Tomas Vokoun, which has him listed as a Penguin, but pictured as a Washington Capital. So, what I wanted to do was have a chance at more Penguins hits without having to buy another box of the product.

In order to fund my buy-in, I sold the following cards on Ebay:
2012-13 Limited Steve Yzerman Limited Duels 13/99
2012-13 Fleer Retro Jonathan Quick Precious Metal Gems Blue 29/50
2012-13 Rookie Anthology Brandon Dubinsky Crown Royale Lords of the NHL Prime Jersey 19/25
2013-14 Trilogy Mikhail Grigorenko Rookie Premieres Level 2 129/399
2013-14 Trilogy Ryan Murphy Rookie Premieres Level 2 145/399

Was the "swap" worth it?

Well, here's the math. My four boxes gave me 7, 7,  5, and 6 hits, respectively, giving me an average of 6.25 hits per box. Since there were 12 boxes in the case, that would work out, on average, to 75 hits. Each box contains one Rookie Treasures card, and since there were no Penguins rookies in 2012-13 products, 12 cards will not be a Penguin, leaving the possibility of 63 cards with the potential to come my way. I figured, with that possibility, combined with the star power in Pittsburgh, I would be sure to rake in the hits.

The break began, and I was beginning to get worried, going ELEVEN boxes without a single autograph or relic coming my way, when the first hit pulled out of box 12 eased my nerves quite a bit turned out to be a Titanium Silver autographed card of Penguins defenseman and 2013 Norris Trophy Finalist Kris Letang.

I also got a really cool card out of one of the Prizm box-topper packs, with a Jarome Iginla blue parallel, numbered 12/25. Not only is it super-rare, but I also get his jersey number in the serial numbering of the card, which should be worth a couple extra bucks when I flip this card on Ebay, right?

I also got a couple of inserts, including two copies of a Sidney Crosby Cup Contenders card I had not pulled, and an Evgeni Malkin Hart Contenders card. All are numbered /999.

I also ended up with a couple Penguins team sets that I will be able to try flip and recover a little bit of the funds I used.

What I liked about the first break I did with them is that they have a tendency to include a few bonus cards with the package. I only got two out of this one, but they were big ones.

The first is a Sidney Crosby All-Star Royalty card from 2008-09 Fleer Ultra. My Crosby collection is now at a solid 220 base and insert cards, along with 44 autos, relics, and case hits, so to find one that I don't have without even looking at my list, is pretty amazing.

This one really blew me away. It's a dual jersey card of Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr from 2012-13 Artifacts. This card spotlights the two biggest names of not only the franchise, but the entire league, during the 1990s, when I began following the team. Just to show how dominant these two were at scoring, for a 14-year stretch (1987-88 to 2000-01) one of these two players led the league in scoring 11 TIMES!!! Lemiuex won the Art Ross Trophy six times during that stretch, and Jagr five times. Wayne Gretzky was the only player to break through the Penguins dominance, picking up three during that span (of course, Gretzky also won the previous seven scoring titles before Lemieux picked up his first in 1987-88).

Was it worth it? I'd say so. I parted ways with a few cards I wasn't too particularly attached to, and in return, picked up quite a few awesome additions to my Penguins collection.  It was a very fun break, and I'm sure HockeyBreaks.comhttp://www.hockeybreaks.com/ will get some more of my business once Prime gets released later on this month.